The Spa Environment and Jeriah’s Duties
Jeriah Sellers is employed by MeltSpa in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where she works as a concierge. MeltSpa provides salon and spa treatments. In preparation for their treatments, guests undress in multi-user locker rooms, designated by signage for men or for women. When escorting women to the women’s locker room, Jeriah is expected to enter with the guest and point out the amenities inside the facility. By contrast, when escorting men to the men’s locker room, she does not enter; instead, she explains the amenities verbally on the way to the locker room. Girls as young as 13 undress in the women’s locker room.
A Simple Accommodation that Worked
Although female concierge employees consistently treat male and female guests differently in this way, that practice was upended when a prominent male who identifies as a woman was scheduled to visit MeltSpa. On May 28, 2025, shortly after Jeriah clocked in, her supervisor pulled her aside to discuss this guest, a male who identifies as a woman and is a well-known political figure. The supervisor asked Jeriah to escort the guest into the women’s locker room when the guest arrived. Jeriah responded that she was uncomfortable taking a male into the women’s locker room, so the supervisor politely volunteered to escort the guest instead, and the guest was served upon arrival.
Three days later, during Jeriah’s next scheduled shift, her manager asked about the accommodation, which had been provided. Jeriah explained her religious beliefs against escorting a biological male into the women’s locker room and emphasized that she wanted to be as deferential as possible to her supervisor, short of violating her Christian convictions. She stated that, as a Christian, she wanted to respond to the situation in a positive way for everyone, but could not escort a biological male into the women’s locker room where other female guests could be undressing, both because of her beliefs about biological sex and out of concern that other women and girls might be undressing. Jeriah also explained that she treats all male guests well, regardless of how they identify, and that she was more than willing to assist any male guest with any aspect of his visit.
Suspension and Discipline
At MeltSpa, concierges routinely have co‑workers assume the task of escorting a guest for secular reasons, such as using the bathroom, answering phones, or completing other tasks. In light of that practice, the manager suggested that Jeriah’s religious beliefs could be accommodated the same way in the future: a co‑worker or supervisor could escort such guests into the women’s locker room. The manager indicated she would confirm this accommodation with the company’s HR department.
However, on June 4, 2025, when Jeriah arrived at work, she was summoned to a meeting with a corporate HR representative. Instead of confirming the accommodation, HR disciplined her for her accommodation request and for using the accommodation on May 28. Jeriah received a written warning, was suspended for the day without pay, and was told to leave her religious beliefs at the door. HR further stated that no future accommodation would be provided and that Jeriah must escort a male guest who feels more comfortable in the women’s locker room into that locker room, regardless of her religious beliefs or whether other women are using it, or face additional discipline.
Jeriah’s Faith and Legal Principles
Jeriah is a practicing Christian whose sincerely held religious beliefs include the conviction that biological sex is immutable and that she cannot affirm or participate in actions that contradict this belief, such as escorting a biological male into a women’s locker room where females may be undressing. She believes that forcing biological men and women into the same intimate space where people undress creates a sexually harassing environment, and that a woman’s privacy from the opposite sex belongs to that woman, and does not spring into existence or cease existing depending on a male’s beliefs about their identity.
No federal or Pennsylvania law requires employers to open privacy facilities like restrooms, changing areas, or showers based on gender identity rather than sex. On the contrary, the sheer volume of laws separating privacy facilities based on sex tells a different story.¹ The reason reflects longstanding concerns about safety, modesty, privacy from the opposite sex, and the avoidance of sexually harassing environments in intimate spaces. In addition, even if the laws were someday changed to require gender identity-separated locker rooms and forbid sex-separated locker rooms, Title VII and parallel state laws still require employers to reasonably accommodate employees’ sincerely held religious beliefs, unless doing so would cause an undue hardship.
Privacy, Equal Treatment, and Respecting Conscience
In practice, MeltSpa segregates locker rooms and allows female staff to explain locker room details to male patrons verbally, without entering the male locker room. Yet MeltSpa now demands that Jeriah treat some males differently from others by escorting those males into the women’s locker room, and has instructed her to “leave her religion at the door.” Jeriah, however, remains consistent: she is willing to serve any male—regardless of identity—so long as doing so does not require her to enter intimate facilities with males. In doing so, she treats all males equally and acts in accordance with her religious conscience by refraining from entering intimate facilities with males.
¹34 Pa. Code § 41.31 (separate facilities in the workplace “for each sex,” and “no person shall be permitted to use or frequent a toilet room assigned to the oitspposite sex”); 34 Pa.Code § 41.32 (requiring partitions separating toilet rooms on account of sex, which shall be “soundproof”); 34 Pa. Code § 41.121 (separate facilities at railroads); 34 Pa. Code § 41.122 (forbidding any person to use a facility at a railroad assigned to the opposite sex). 24 P.S. § 7-740 (school privacy facilities “shall be suitably constructed for, and used separately by the sexes”); 7 Pa. Code § 1.57 (separate facilities for meat packers); 7 Pa. Code § 82.9 (separate facilities for seasonal farm workers, “distinctly marked ‘for men’ and ‘for women’ by signs printed in English and in the native languages of the persons” using those facilities); 28 Pa. Code § 18.62 (“separate dressing facilities, showers, lavatories, toilets and appurtenances for each sex” at swimming pools); 28 Pa. Code § 19.21 (separate facilities at camps); 28 Pa. Code § 205.38 (separate facilities at long term care facilities); Exec. Order No. 14168, Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, 90 Fed. Reg. 8615 (Jan. 30, 2025) (effective Jan. 20, 2025) (recognizing that “gender identity-based access to single-sex spaces . . . has harmed women”).
